


A Thwarted Vacation In Vatican City

by afteriwake



Series: To Change A Life [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alien Technology, Amy Pond Trusts John Harrison, Amy is Impressed, F/M, Minor Violence, Pre-Relationship, Rules, Self-Defense, Strong Khan Noonien Singh/John Harrison, Time Travel, Translation Field Malfunction, Unconscious Eleventh Doctor, Vatican City - Freeform, no killing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 11:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17682989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: While on their travels through time and space, the trio end up in Vatican City to see the Sistine Chapel get painted and get much more than they bargained for.





	A Thwarted Vacation In Vatican City

**Author's Note:**

> So this was a chapter of a previously written story that I rewrote and ended at an earlier point, and then turned into a series. I hope you enjoy this bit!

“I do not understand the point of watching a man paint the ceiling of a chapel,” John said when he and Amy left the TARDIS a week after he had joined them. Traveling through the stars did not interest him, but traveling through time did. So far they had paid a visit to Liz X so Amy could renew her acquaintance and actually take a tour of Space Britain, and they had gone to the 1920s in Australia and solved a murder there. John had declined to pick any destination they had gone to, content to let Amy decide, but he seemed to regret this choice.

“It's Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. Surely that existed in your universe?” she asked as the two of them followed the Doctor through the crowded streets towards the chapel.

“In ancient history. It was destroyed in one of the three battles that overtook the Earth,” he said.

“Well, then you get to see history being made, which is better than just reading about it in a dusty old book.”

“Books are quite rare in my time,” he said. 

“I love books. I want to write them someday,” she said with a smile. “I want to tell stories of all the adventures I have with the Doctor. I think I could do a very good job.”

“As I have yet to see a sample of your writing I couldn't say one way or the other,” he replied. “But you could conceivably do a passable job.”

“Oh ye of little faith,” she said, swatting at his shoulder. Then she looked around. “Do you see the Doctor?”

“I do not,” he said after a moment of looking. “Do you know how to get to the chapel we're headed for?”

She shook her head. “I've only been to Italy once and I was in Venice. Not an experience I'd like to repeat, actually.”

“Oh?” he asked, turning to look at her.

“Aliens that acted like vampires,” she replied. “Nearly became one of them.”

“How does a human become an alien?” he asked curiously.

“With super advanced technology you can become a hybrid. Or at least they could make you a hybrid. Didn't work in the end. The Doctor destroyed the technology and all the aliens and hybrid aliens died.” She looked around. “We should try and find him.”

“He won't get into trouble,” John said. “If you're hellbent on seeing this chapel we should go see it.”

“Oh, you don't know the Doctor nearly as well as I do. If there is trouble around he'll find it, I guarantee it. We just need to find the trouble and then we'll find him, and hopefully, he won't be waist deep in it.” She reached over for John's hand and grabbed it, pulling him along. “Come on.”

John allowed himself to be pulled along for a few minutes before he stopped. Amy took a few more steps and then stopped when she couldn't pull him again. She turned and was about to say something when he put a finger to his lips and then pulled her close against him. He was quiet for a moment, and then he pulled her into an alleyway. “Do you hear that?” he asked, his voice low.

She concentrated. “It sounds like a low level buzzing,” she said. “Like bees under glass.”

“It's machinery that shouldn't exist in this time and place,” he said. “If I had to wager where the Doctor was it would be in this building.”

“So we should go in and get him, yeah?” she asked. “Bring him out before he gets himself into trouble?”

“That's not sound tactical planning. If we go in without reconnaissance first we could get trapped.” He looked up at the window on the wall behind Amy. Then he looked across from it. “Will the natives understand me?” he asked.

“Never had a problem with it before. The TARDIS translates a large area. They'll think we're speaking Italian, we'll think they're speaking English with a British accent.”

“That must be boring,” she said.

“The only way I hear other accents is if they're already speaking English,” she said with a grin. “No translation needed.”

“I suppose there are worse things,” he said. “Even though the locals do not seem to be paying any particular attention to our clothing I would like to be in something more appropriate.”

“Yeah, but if we have to get him out of there I'd much rather be in trousers and a T-shirt than a dress. You might need my help and what good would I be to you in a Renaissance dress?”

He thought about it for a minute. “Fair point. Very well. You get into the room up there and then observe. I'm going to search as much of this building as I can.”

Amy's eyes narrowed. “You just want me out of the way,” she said.

“I believe the machine is in the room across from that window. If you can observe it then you can tell me if anything strange is going on.”

“How am I going to alert you?” she asked.

“Whistle,” he said as he moved away from her.

“Just whistle,” she said quietly, shaking her head as she watched him leave. She made her way to the other building and then charmed the shopkeeper to let her upstairs. She got to the window and looked through to the other side. There was definitely a machine in there, and she could see the Doctor tied up in a chair. The shopkeeper was talking to her and she watched as a pink-skinned alien struck the Doctor in the back of the head. Suddenly she couldn't understand what the shopkeeper was saying. She turned and smiled, pointing to the window, but he seemed intent on flirting. When he came over to her and pressed himself on top of her she kneed him in the groin and then took a heavy book by the window and hit him in the head. He collapsed, and then she opened up the window and stuck her head out, whistling. John came back around the corner moments later. “He's upstairs, tied to a chair an unconscious. And I can't understand anything anymore.”

“The translation field must only work when the Doctor is conscious,” John mused. “I'll get him and bring him back down.”

“Don't leave me up here! The man who owns the shop made a pass at me and he's in a heap on the floor. If he comes to I don't think I can overpower him again.”

“Very well,” he said with a sigh. “But don't get in my way.”

“I can hold my own in a fight, thank you very much,” she said, pulling her head back in. She made her way back down to the ground level and into the alley. John was waiting for her. “How are we going to get in?”

“Easy. We use the window.”

She stared at him. “There's no rope and no ladder. How are we going to get up?”

“There's no ladder on _this_ side. The Doctor put one on the other.” He nodded towards the mouth of the alley. “After you.”

Amy moved out of the alley with John right behind her. They quickly walked around to the other side of the building and there she saw the ladder. John moved to it first and climbed up, and Amy followed right behind him. He had just made it into the building when she heard signs of a scuffle. She peeked into the room and saw John brutally take down another pink skinned alien. “Don't kill him!” she said.

“He was trying to kill me,” John pointed out.

“No killing. It's one of the Doctor's rules,” she said as she climbed in.

He sighed. “Very well,” he said, releasing his chokehold on the alien. The alien slumped down to the ground and John began searching him. He pulled off something that looked like a gun and a small round object. “I can make use of these.”

“Just don't kill anyone with the gun,” she said.

“You can always aim to injure as oppose to kill, though it is usually more effective to kill your enemies. That means less chance of retaliation later.”

“We don't even know if these aliens are our enemies,” she pointed out.

“They have guns and they hurt the Doctor. I don't see how that makes them our friends,” he said. He handed her the gun when she got close. “I don't need that, but you might.”

“Trusting me with a gun?” she asked.

“I trust you like me well enough not to shoot at me,” he said with a slight grin.

“Oh, I like you quite a bit,” she said with a grin of her own. “I would feel _really_ bad if I shot you.”

“Well, we don't want you to feel bad, now do we?” he asked. He began to make his way towards the door and then opened it. Amy followed once he signaled that the coast was clear. The buzzing sound was much louder now, and they moved towards the room that was roughly in the area where Amy had seen the machine. John got to the door and opened it quickly, stalking into the room. Amy saw there were three aliens there, not just one. She trained the gun on the aliens but John was already handling it well enough on his own.

After a moment she went over to the Doctor. One thing she'd started to do was carry around a small pocket knife, and she cut through his bonds as quickly as she could, ignoring the sounds of fighting. Once she got his legs and arms undone she went to work waking him up. “Doctor?” she asked, shaking him. “Doctor!” Still, he didn't respond. Finally, she reached over and slapped him across the face, and his eyes snapped open. “Doctor. Good to see you woke up.”

“We have to destroy the machine!” the Doctor said, his eyes wide. “It will call a whole armada of the Jegrhans to Earth to make it the new base in their plan to take over the universe.”

“Well, what do we need to do?”

“Show them that Earthlings can fight back,” he said.

“I think John's doing a good enough job of that,” Amy said as John threw one of the aliens into the machine. It dented and smoke began to pour out of it. “And he broke the machine to boot.”

“He was certainly serious when he said he was superior to most other humans,” the Doctor said.

“He's impressive,” Amy replied.

“He's dangerous, too,” the Doctor replied quietly. Finally, the last alien went after John and he punched him across the face. The alien sank down to the floor and John looked at the two of them. “Right. It seems the machine won't do what it's intended to do, and we can get these aliens back to their ship and off this planet. Let's get them to the TARDIS.”

“No need,” John said, holding up the little ball. “If I'm not mistaken, this is similar to a device that can open up a wormhole. We open one up and send them through to the other side.”

“What's going to be on the other side?” Amy asked.

“Hopefully their commanding officer,” the Doctor said. “Very well. We'll send the three of them and their machine along.”

“Four,” Amy said. “There's another one in the other room.”

“I'll go get him,” John said before leaving the room.

“I'll help,” the Doctor said. The two men left the room and were gone about ten minutes, which was long enough for Amy to start to get worried. Finally, they came back in, John carrying the unconscious alien and the Doctor right behind him. “It's all settled now. We'll send them back and then go visit Michelangelo.” 

“All right,” Amy said slowly. John deposited the alien near the machine and then dragged the others over before moving to Amy. “Is everything all right?” she asked him quietly.

“The Doctor and I just had a chat,” he said. “It's nothing.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Quite sure.”

They watched the Doctor set the coordinates and open the wormhole. He moved it so the aliens and their machine were sucked into it, and then moments later it turned itself off. The Doctor turned back towards them before putting the ball in his pocket. “Now then! Sistine Chapel, yes?”

“No,” Amy said, crossing her arms. “Not until you tell me what you and John chatted about.”

“It was nothing,” the Doctor said. “I was just going over guidelines: no killing, no maiming, no putting innocent people in harm's way.”

“That shouldn't have taken ten minutes,” she said.

“The alien woke up,” John said. “I had to knock it out again. That took time.”

She looked from John to the Doctor and then back to John. “Don't either of you lie to me. Ever. Lie to me and I leave, understand?”

“Understood,” John said with a nod.

“Yes, understood,” the Doctor said.

“All right. I suppose we can go see the chapel now,” she said. “After you two, just in case we missed one of them.” The Doctor nodded and headed out of the room, but John lingered. “Yes?” she asked.

“He really did just remind me of his rules for being a companion,” he said. “I may be deceitful from time to time with people but I promise I will not lie to you, out of respect.”

“I'll hold you to that,” she said with a small smile. “And I promise I'll do the same.”

“Thank you,” John said with a nod.

“You both should be coming out now!” the Doctor called from outside the door.

“Coming, Doctor!” Amy called back, her grin widening slightly as she stepped past John. Dangerous as John might be he was definitely someone who she felt comfortable around, she realized, and that had to count for something.


End file.
